eBay settles no-poaching case with California and U.S. government

By Howard Mintz hmintz@mercurynews.com

Posted:
05/01/2014 09:46:43 AM PDT

Updated:
05/01/2014 02:17:02 PM PDT

SAN JOSE -- eBay has settled an antitrust case brought by the U.S. Justice Department and California over its agreements not to recruit from rival workforces, the latest Silicon Valley company to resolve legal problems resulting from alleged anti-competitive hiring practices.

The Justice Department and California Attorney General Kamala Harris disclosed the settlement in court papers filed Thursday. eBay has entered into a consent decree that bars it from certain hiring practices over the next five years, primarily focused on avoiding agreements with other companies to not hire from each other, according to court documents.

"The proposed settlement resolves the department's antitrust concerns and ensures that eBay will not engage in similar conduct in the future," said Bill Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's antitrust division.

eBay issued a statement saying it "continues to believe that the policy that prompted this lawsuit was acceptable and legal, and led to no anti-competitive effects in the talent market in which eBay competed."

The San Jose company added that it "competes aggressively to attract and retain the best talent, while conforming to the hiring practices standards established by the Department of Justice in prior hiring-related cases against other companies. Any hiring practices or decisions that could have raised concerns with the Department of Justice ceased years ago."

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The eBay settlement comes just a week after four other valley powers -- Apple, Adobe, Intel and Google -- settled a class-action lawsuit with tens of thousands of employees who sued over the no-poaching agreements. That case reportedly was settled for hundreds of millions of dollars.

eBay does not appear to be paying any damages in its pact with the federal government, but the company is paying about $3.7 million to settle a parallel case brought by California officials, much of that restitution to employees, court papers show.

A federal judge must approve the consent decree.

The government's 2012 lawsuit against eBay focused on allegations that top executives of eBay, including former CEO Meg Whitman, entered side deals with Intuit not to poach workers from each other.

Justice Department lawyers indicated in court papers that the eBay consent decree is the same as the settlement in the government's previous antitrust case against Apple, Google, Adobe, Intel and others that was identical to the recently settled class action. Intuit was also a defendant in both the class action and government antitrust cases.

The companies settled that case in 2010, agreeing not to engage in anti-competitive hiring practices.

Staff writer Steve Johnson contributed to this report.

Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz